Sunday, October 23, 2011

Yoked

For knitters, one of the staggering things about the streets of Reykjavik is that they are so full of people wearing handknits that you almost stop noticing. The lopapeysa is everywhere. What's more, it's on everyone. The hip and the dowdy, the young and the old, the ample and the spindly all hike about with the signature patterned yoke around their shoulders.

On day one, spotting them was sport enough. "Over there," Stephen would hiss in my ear, "by the coffee shop." Mike would snap a surreptitious picture with his iPad, if a photo taken by waving a large, flashy piece of electronic equipment in the air can be said to be surreptitious.

By the end of the trip, we had moved along from mere sighting to identifying according to which Lopi book they'd been published in. "Number 26," I'd say, casually nodding my head in the direction of a passing specimen. "That's four this morning," Stephen would note. Stephen is good at counting things. Mike would snap a surreptitious picture with his iPad, if a photo taken by waving a large, flashy piece of electronic equipment in the air can be said to be surreptitious.

You can attribute the universal popularity of the lopapeysa to many things. It's warm. It's handsome. It's durable. You can buy the yarn for it at the grocery store for thirty bucks.

But that's not the whole story. It also turns out the damned things are addictive to knit. I started my Vetur three days ago with a swatch to test the colors. I have already finished the yoke,

and I'm having trouble setting it aside so that I can eat, sleep, bathe, engage in human contact.

I had to force myself to put it down so I could photograph it and write this. In fact, I'm tempted to stop writing immed

Be glad you live in Chicago, where a sweater as warm as a lopapeysa can actually be worn frequently. Not so for me in California! The only yarn I bought in the Alafoss factory shop was sock yarn. (I did buy a beautiful Alafoss blanket, though. Do they still have those?)-- Gretchen

$60?! Um, sweetie, I paid about $26 for my yarn at the Álafoss store. And that's not counting the kilo plus of plötulopi that's still waiting for me to suss out exactly how I want to knit it up. Or the lovely buttons I got.

You're right, Mel. Not 60, but 30. I misread my receipt when I was putting my post together and added in a bunch of Einband that I bought at the same time. You know more about Iceland than I can ever possibly hope to. Mea culpa.

Icelandic sweaters are indeed very very addictive! I love the colour combo too - I used the same purple in a version of Riddari and remember there were so many beautiful colours in that one skein, you could stare at it for hours. I can't wait to see your finished sweater - gorgeous! :)

This looks amazing and I wouldn't be able to stop either. I already have plans that my next steeked sweater (because I prefer cardigans) will use a non-superwash wool, so I can have it even easier by not needing to machine sew it together.

I do 4 to 7 yoked sweaters a year (depending on who I get for Christmas). People (well, my mother and my children) start requesting them for next Christmas the previous Jan. This year my mother said "I'd like a tan cardigan" and my 11 year old said "I want one for the ski race in Jan so everyone can see me!" My husband says "Nothing too bright"... They are addictive.

I used to knit Lopi sweaters on commission in the early 80s. Most of my customers were young Navy officers who would get shipped off to Adak, Alaska every 18 months or so for a 6-month tour. They all claimed that the sweaters were warmer than their Navy-issued parkas.

I could churn a custom-fitted one out in two weeks. I thought I was a fast knitter until my best friend reminded me that I was using "big yarn on big needles." She really took the wind out of my sails with that!

I just learned "Two hands, two colors" this weekend with Sally Melville and am dying to try my first project. I have the yarn set aside at home to begin this evening. I am scared I will be addicted also.

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